NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — “Occupy Wall Street” protesters took their demonstration from Zuccotti Park to Park Avenue on Tuesday, delivering their message to the homes of some of the city’s wealthiest residents.

Chanting “We are the 99 percent!” they raised their voices, raised their signs and raised a ruckus as they marched through the land of the ladies who lunch, reports CBS 2’s Tony Aiello.

“We’re living in a time where I’ve never seen so much shameless greed,” Upper West Side resident Sima Zaluta said.

They targeted five ultra-rich business tycoons who live on the Upper East Side — Rupert Murdoch, David Koch, Howard Milstein, John Paulson and Jamie Dimon – to illustrate how they’ll benefit when New York’s so-called “millionaire’s tax” expires in December.

“It’s crazy to be cutting services for homeless kids, to be giving more money to Rupert Murdoch. We should stop that,” march organizer Mike Kink said.

Their ire was aimed at politicians from both major parties, including the Democratic governor who fought to end the millionaire’s tax.

When asked what his message to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Wanke Starks of Bed-Stuy said, “to stop protecting the millionaires and the billionaires and to start working for the people, because we put him in office.”

Watching it all were some who found the protests misguided.

“Some of their complaints to me is kinda off base. If you really want to create jobs, you don’t protest the people who are trying to create ’em,” said James Minton of Winston-Salem, N.C.

“I don’t think you can justify labeling rich people one way, and people that are not rich another way,” added Alex Schwartz of the Upper East Side.

“As long as people obey the law they’re going to have no problem with the police department,” Kelly said. “We obviously are there to facilitate free speech; people are demonstrating their constitutional right to speak.”

Simmons appeared in a YouTube video with rapper Kanye Wall Street at Zuccotti Park.

“Kanye has been a big supporter spiritually for this movement,” Simmons said. “He’s just here to stand with the people.”

“He understands this idea about getting money out of government, of letting the people govern. He wants to give power back to the people. That’s why we’re here,” Simmons said, as West stood silently next to him.

“I’m happy to pay more taxes. All these people are here because they want more community effort from this country,” said Simmons.

“Let’s use a little of this wealth to give people the basic necessities,” said protester Sparrow Kennedy.

Others protesters simply want a job.

“I am unemployed,” said an exasperated Buddy Bolton. “I have desperately been looking for work for over a year and a half.”

“We do not need a unified message,” said demonstrator Max Hodes.

Tell us your thoughts about the Occupy Wall Street protest in the comments section below.

One Comment

What we need in this country is CITIZENS’ Revolt against our politicians, regardless of party affiliation. while our politicians fight each other, without any concern for our Country, they work one week a month, collect their high paying checks, enjoy perks like no other citizen can, protected for life with security, while the rest of us stupidedly support it without complaining. I say enough is enough either get your acts together and protest for all the injustice bestowed upon the citizens while they enjoy life fully at our expense. What’s wrong with us? Are we stupid to accept this and not react. Wake up America, not even our veterans have those perks, shame on us, how about all the poverty and the hungry children???

Switch gears and call it a Citizens’ revolt and spread throughout the Country.
Tell our politicians, “WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE ANYORE”.

Typical jealous socialist-communist agitators that want to impound the earinigs of others with more brains or ambition./ Why not protest all the athletic events? Those pros earn far more than 99.5% of most Americans. It’s not fair that I can’t pitch for the Yankees.

Look at that crowd…Absolute hatred on their vicious faces for anyone who has made it.. They should go to Cuba or North Korea if they like communism so much.

Excellent move, OWS. Taking this protest to the rich who are responsible and staying in their arrogant faces is a tactic you guys should do as much as possible. People like Dimon and Koch get away with bending policy to favor their class because they never ever have to face anyone who doesn’t make as much as they do. They’ve sealed themselves off in a bubble that helps them regard the rest of us as exploitable labor–as things–so they never feel accountable for the damage they case. Go get ’em.

It really is enough with these goofballs already, the idiots on here that follow and support them, and the media for constantly keeping this stupidity front and center. Millionaire march?? Do you actually think that any of them were actually home and care about this stupidity ?? This is nothing more than a misguided group of wannabes, who are jealous of those that have worked hard and made a name for themselves, and made money to go with it. Being in the right place at the right time also helped as well. But expecting to go to school, and get handed a 6 figure job is insane. I personally would not hire any of them, since they look grungy and too geeky. Would actually scare a lot of people away. Want to make a difference or change things, start up a petition, or flood your local congressmans phone lines. Making asses out of yourself in Manhattan, just turns more people off than it impresses. And don;t think the police are going to sit on the sidelines watching too much longer. Enough is really enough…….

Most have this HUGE SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT (Yes literally that huge) from the days of easy revolving credit, parental subsidies, mommy paying rent & car payments etc… Many of these ‘kids’ can’t hack it in the real world and should maybe get their noses out of the air and learn the meaning of humility & hard work

We must take this further than just redistributing the wealth of the rich. Take me for example. I have so-so grades because I am not gifted. Why should students who are smarter than me get better grades? It is just not fair. There needs to be something put in place to give people like me equal grades. I think our next step should be grade re-distribution.

With roughly 10% of Americans paying about 70% of the taxes, you have to ask the question as to whether they’re paying their “fair share” or perhaps more than is ‘fair,” given the government benefits that they receive.

Leaving out the billionaires for a second, let’s look at what we might call “Obama’s rich”–the couple that makes a little over $250,00. In Long Island terms, that could be a couple in their late 40s, perhaps a schoolteacher with 20 years on the job and credits beyond his/her masters’ degree and a Suffolk County patrolman who manages to make a little overtime–far from the popular view of wealthy folks’ jobs. They pay quite a bit of tax–probably something like $60,000 or so in income taxes, and maybe another $10,000 or $20,000, depending on where they live, in taxes on their home. Yet such people get relatively little in government services–they use the roads, and get fire/police protection, and receive whatever benefits are conveyed on the general populace by the regulatory agencies, but certainly don’t get anything like the assistance received by those who pay far less in taxes–if they pay anything at all. Is that “fair”?

And before people talk about the poor who aren’t out of work by choice, think a little bit about what we see every year on Long Island. Particularly on the South Fork, businesses worry each season that the government won’t issue enough temporary work permits to allow them to import help from Ireland, Latin America, etc. to get them through the season–because the locals won’t fill the jobs. There are plenty of out of work people in Suffolk, and something like 20,000 welfare recipients. You would think that a number of them would have the skill set needed to dig holes and plant trees, or otherwise work on a landscaping crew, to wash dishes in restaurants, to strip linens off beds and wash floors in hotels. But, apparently, it’s better to live off “the rich” than to take whatever jobs aren’t good enough for Americans, but are fine for people from overseas. Is that “fair”?

And for that matter, what do these kids pay in taxes? They seem to want free education, forgiveness of loans, etc., but what are they willing to ante up in exchange? Nothing that I can see. They want to to to college and study things that don’t prepare them for jobs, then complain that “the rich” should pay for it.

From where I sit, it would seem that there are quite a few folks in this country that don’t contribute “their fair share.” But most of the rich are not included among them.

oh please, why should the rich pay less then me i am one of these people and i am not a kid i am 52. and why should corporations who are slashing everyone’s pay and benefits while making record profits pay no tax? Wake UP

They may pay a lesser rate on some types of income, but the likelihood is that they pay far more than you do in absolute dollar terms.

Once we get beyond the sound bites and look at the facts, we find very little truth in the neo-hippies claims.

And those corporations and corporate profits? They’re the entities that issue the stock that is in union pension plans and working folks’ 401(k)s. Unless you want people to have a bare-bones retirement, hope that the corporations do well.

AGREE! The protesters should take a Economics 101 class to understand that they are truly misguided in their thinking. I’m also not sure why they are trying to intimidate people into thinking that they are the voice of 99% of the population. Have any of them voted in ANY election lately? It would seem not since Republican after Republican are being elected. Screaming, yelling, and trespassing are not going to change anything but make the other 98% irritated and disgusted.

Taxes aren’t an item on the shelf at Wal-Mart. Paying your fair share means paying the SAME PERCENTAGE as everyone else. Everybody makes up the United States. Everybody.

For instance. Let’s say you own, I don’t know, DOLLAR GENERAL. You’re a millionaire several times over. You didn’t get that way because you worked every day breaking rocks for it. You got that way by offering a product to POOR PEOPLE that they can afford. Without those poor people, you wouldn’t be “rich people”.

That being said, those poor people pay taxes. Assuming we have a flat tax system, which we don’t and should, you both pay 15% of your income. Yes, you made 100 million dollars. So you pay 15 million in taxes. However 500,000 poor people are responsible for you making that 100 million. While they pay a smaller dollar amount, they’re paying the same percentage as you are, and still give their money to you for your goods. What, do you think the owner of Dollar General should be allowed to make 100 million dollars and give NOTHING back to the system that made them their money, while the folks who GAVE them the money have to pay 15% of THEIR income?

It doesn’t work that way, and if I had my druthers I’d druther these people getting rich off the poor people either pay their fair share in taxes, or GET OUT and go try to make that same money somewhere else.

That just doesn’t make sense. The millionaire is paying a ton of sales tax on even more expensive purchases…houses, cars, jewelry, clothing, etc… They are also employing workers in their businesses and helping their own neighborhoods by hiring domestic help (babysitters and housecleaners who all get at least 20/hour cash), construction/home improvement professionals, etc… They go out to dinner all the time (helping the restaurant industry), frequent gyms, beauty salons, and other service businesses. Get your facts straight and look at the big picture. You make more, you end up giving more. On top of everything, they DONATE more than anyother socioeconomic group.

Awesome. There are HEAPS of oppoortunities out there, but we’ve become “too good” or “too educated” to take them. Yes, there are definitely hard cases out there, but if you are truly starving, there IS work to be found. There ARE issues to be changed, but simply biting the hand of those who can create the jobs is not the answer. Look for intelligent ways to correct the unregulated issues which need to be addressed, don’t simply assume because someone has taken the time, hard work and opportunity to create wealth that they are automatically wrong. Look at how they have done it, what they have done, and what they are doing with it.

Listen people….I think it’s great what these protesters are doing. We have been quiet for all those years but no longer. I live in Atlanta, used to live in NYC years ago. The rich get richer and the poor are getting poorer. Between my wife and I and she is a teacher, and I work at Home Depot and my wife has a second part time job we don’t even make 55000 combined. Gas…food…auto insurance and home owners insurance and property taxes have skyrocketed. We are struggling too. Meanwhile Bob Nardelli former CEO of Home Depot walked off with over 200 million dollars. That is a crock of bull. Bob went to work for Chrysler and he was one of the goons that had his hand out to borrow money from the govt….meanwhile he was traveling around the counrty with his corporate leer jet. That is what needs to be stopped. Power to the people…lets all stand up and stop the greed.

Sure protest all these millionaires who went to school worked hard and earned there money.We should not feel entitled to anything go to school get a job or start your own business.I would feel better working 3 or 4 jobs then have someone hand me something you make and decide your own future it is noones fault if your lazy or have no drive in life.

The officially apolitical, independent Federal Reserve chairman backed all of Rubin’s favorite deregulatory plans, and helped crush an effort by Brooksley Born to regulate derivatives in 1998, after the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management went bust. By the time Greenspan left office in 2006, the derivatives market had ballooned into a multi-trillion dollar casino, and Greenspan wanted his cut. He took a job with bond kings PIMCO and then with the hedge fund Paulson & Co.—yeah, that Paulson and Co., the one that colluded with Goldman Sachs to sabotage the company’s own clients with unregulated derivatives.

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Greenspan has been a close associate of alleged fraudsters. Back in the 1980s, Greenspan went to bat for politically connected Savings & Loan titan Charles Keating, urging regulators to exempt his bank from a key rule. Keating later went to jail for fraud, after, among other things, putting out a hit on regulator William Black. (“Get Black – kill him dead.”) Nice friends you’ve got, Alan.

I’ve been to this protest and the irony is that a big portion of the protesters are these self-absorbed, self-entitled pricks that just moved to this NYC… to all the gentrified neighborhoods of Bklyn. They pay some of the highest rents in the city, making it impossible for the working class (that they’re supposedly fighting for) to get a decent apt in a decent neighborhood. And it’s their parents wealth that enables them to live here without having to go to work for the past month to protest.

i agree with The Realist and others like him. I worked my way through High School and college. Worked a low paying internship that turned into a full time position. After hard work and dedication i am doing pretty damn well for myself.

I also had to pay off my student loans, car loan. Pay for school books, lunch and everything else. I bet if anyone offered the Occupy Wall Street new age hippies a job hey would turn around and run the other way.

How do you think the residents of downtown feel. Finally their community is rebuilding and making progress. Now they have to deal with a group of smell protesters destroying their community. It is not only companies down here you will see more families then you think.

Forgot to add about idiot Kayne West.. What happened he cant speak?
The only reason he is down their is for his own greed. He must be upset that the government taxes his earnings and is upset that the millions he makes is not more.

Should the government now pay for iphones, apple computers, and other really “cool stuff”. When I was broke and starting my own business, I didn’t go out, had a free giveaway phone (with cheap plan), and worked 2 other jobs to pay my bills (including my masters at a CUNY school because I couldn’t afford private). 5 years later, my service company had a year waiting list.

It’s amazing how many people are missing the point. It’s not about socialism or redistributing wealth.The issue is about how certain groups, namely the financial community, have played a majority role in the causes of economic decline and seemingly breezed through the recession.But that’s a small part of the many issues.It’s also about irresponsible members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle who have not listened to and often ignored their constituants.
It is easily confuse all the issues because the group does not have one voice.That is their greatest fault. Personally I am impressed that finally some Americans are willing to go out there and demonstrate instead of being glued to the TV watching baseball or trashy reality shows.

Blaming a single group, whether it is “Wall Street” or another industry or class of people, for our economic problems is counter-productive. Our problems are deep-rooted and complicated with solutions that will not come easily. Certainly the financial services industry is not blameless with respect to the housing collapse, but so, too, are the politicians who pushed the envelope in boosting home ownership rates (a noble cause, but not well thought through) as are unscrupulous mortgage brokers, and individuals who took on too much debt, were not truthful about their income, or played the “flip the property” game. Political polarization is doing tremendous harm to the country and these protests do not appear, in my opinion, to be helping

No, sorry. We don’t socialize in the same circles so I missed the news of his demise.

Okay, so we’ll pick another one. It’s not like we can’t find another gazillionaire that leans left. For Pete’s sake, we could just randomly pick a name out of the Who’s Who of the entertainment industry and find somebody that would fit the bill.

Mayor Bloomberg is OK SO LONG AS THEY DON’T MARCH IN FRONT OF HIS HOUSE!! Or better yet, why doesn’t have a seat with his voting public. Oh wait — word is most of these protesters aren’t even from NYC. Sooo it’s still OK with our elected Mayor Dumberg that these poor defenseless, people use drugs, fornicate, defecate in public – our public space. But leave them alone huh? He feels more sympathy for these dirtbags than his own constituents. Who’s running in the next election?!

Who the hell is “Rapper Kanye Wall Street”, i think you mean “Rapper Kanye West”. Your news is always full of elementary mistakes…no wonder no one reads it. Just like the guy who was caught the other day “Seeling Heroin”….retarded

He should have declined that bonus and diverted it to the communist fund plan.
Divestiture should be the common norm until the righteous standard of multicultural purging and righteous morality, construed by the few and proud leaders, will be implemented.
Say….the above ended with 1989 communist massacre in E.EUrope…, how do you think this bolshevik fiasco ends?
?

No, and why is that there can be no reason for a human being to receive a $49 mil bonus? A corporation has the right to decide who gets paid what. But maybe the problem is the the “99 percent” are just not smart enough to make it in the real world to make any real money?

These people have FREE education through high school, FREE broadcast TV and radio, FREE libraries, FREEDOM of speech, FREE hospital care, and, for the most part, public assistance for FREE food. They ARE the 1%!! But they want MORE, MORE, MORE without working for it! Most of the world’s population hasn’t got a clue what they are whining about.

Both of my boys were honor students all the way through Graduate school. They each hold a Master Degree—yet one is unemployed and the other is underemployed (he’s having problems paying the rent). Mr. George L: You don’t have a clue about how bad it is.

For 40 years now our jobs (minted here in the good old USA) have been exported to foreign lands. Manufacturing has been decimated and now our service jobs are going bye, bye, too! My only surprise is that this hasn’t happened sooner.

Does it really matter? They went to school, got an education, and are ready and willing to work. With your questions, your just looking to shoot them down and ridicule them that they have a useless degree if it doesn’t meet YOUR standards.

Did your kids choose “fluff” majors like art history or comparative literature? Or did they major in EMPLOYABLE fields like nursing (like one of my cousins) or physical therapy (like three of my cousins) or accounting or engineering?

In case you hadn’t noticed (or didn’t care), the majority of people who are unemployed are from “employable,” formerly-secure jobs–middle-managers, secretaries, managers. Or their field (like law-firm clerking and engineering) is being outsourced overseas or companies are hiring cheaper imported workers. That’s why most people know the right-wing and their suck-up flunkies are full of it when you all come up with arguments like this–because people in normally stable jobs have been laid-off to a destabilizing point. And it’s funny that you wingers back in the 60’s railed against people going into trades jobs because you swore up and down that the only way to defeat Communism was if citizens went into knowledge fields–the very ones you call impractical now.

As for those “sympathetic” celebrities that show up for a decent photo op, why don’t you alll put all your rich money where your mouths are and put some of these people to work? Otherwise, you look pretty damn stupid going there bellowing “I feel for you, feel really bad for you, fight for your right” and then as soon as you turn your back … “driver where are you? I need to get to the Four Seasons for a $100 lunch with my other obscenely rich friends and please beep at any cars driven by middle class people to get out of the way because after all, don’t they know who I am? And please bring me to my private jet lent to me by my greedy corporate friends because I have to go make $10 million dollars for acting like crap.”

These people need to go out, get an education and spend their time looking for a job. Corporate America provides jobs and a tax base. If you work hard, you can achieve anything. These people want handouts.

Both of my boys were honor students all the way through Graduate school. They each hold a Master Degree—yet one is unemployed and the other is underemployed (he’s having problems paying the rent). Ms. Sue: You don’t have a clue about how bad it is.

For 40 years now our jobs (minted here in the good old USA) have been exported to foreign lands. Manufacturing has been decimated and now our service jobs are going bye, bye, too! My only surprise is that this hasn’t happened sooner.

Did you say tax base? Our tax base has been eroded by Corporate America sending our jobs to China, India, Central and South America.

It is sad to see the total lack of understanding of the Occupy movement from the above commenters and almost all of the Main stream media. This movement is about wanting an end to corporate control and greed in our society and a return to a level playing field in America so that we can all have a fair chance to achieve our dreams.
Corporate money out of Government, Corporate control of the media broken so we can return to a fair and balanced coverage of news, corporate influence out of our wars, so they don’t run for 10 years at the cost of our people so a few can profit. This is not against the rich but against unfair policies that make it impossible for the 99% to compete or have our voices heard.

I started working at 15, graduated HS, worked for a year. Went to college, received by Associates. Got a job, worked more years paid by loans back. Went back to school to get my Bachelors and Masters, paid back my loans quickly. Doesn’t seem to hard, and I came from a low-income family. And today, my only debt is my home and a measly little credit card.

I had a part-time job while in high school. I paid for college and grad school with two part-time jobs. One of my grad school professors referred me to an intership, which in turn led to a full-time job. After 22 years and several promotions, I’m quite happy and wouldn’t change anything.

I also have been working since I was 13, put myself through school (grad. level) and lived on my own since I was 17. But make no mistake about it, I am also aware that I am lucky to be American, white (please don’t think that I am a supremacist, I just am aware that racism and sexism have and still exist) and healthy. What they are disputing (and I am not saying that I agree with today’s tactic) is greed, corruption, mismanagment and possibly, our own apathy. Also it is egotistical, and I think, ignorant to believe that only hard work leads to success; most people that make it “big” are lucky. Lucky to be born into a certain family, into this country, to have hands, legs, etc…., to have a penis, be of a certain color, maybe have an angel on your shoulder, etc…if you don’t get that, like Donald Trump who “made it on his own” – yeah right- then you don’t have an understanding of others around you or the society that you live in. I am not suggesting that people who are addicts (I am an addict, so I am not judging, I just think there is a point when narcissim takes over and we need to grow up), lazy or moochers don’t exist. But we need to have some compassion. Like a kid, you can’t spoil them but they need praise and guidance as well some tough love. Many of us also don’t understand that we are merely renters of the earth. We should be thinking of those that come after us; the children and the animals (if we exist of the years 2050+). The problems are greed, the govt. (and us allowing wars to be waged, regulations and taxes to be cut, saving businesses that maybe should have failed for their gambling), the military industrial system and the oil companies. What is going on may have issues, be a little leaderless, chaotic ect…but it is actually making us talk and make inquiries about such things as the banks or the Adam Smith philosophy. Nothing wrong with that. Better than watching reality shows or sitting in a bar.

Waste of time people. You should march near WH and Capital Hill, where the scums are located and who are responsible for all your trouble. But, my guess the disgusting politicos who orchestrated this show wish you to be away from them.